PAS should stop flirting with
the reactionary police forces on the IPCMC issue to gain political mileage
at the expense of the Prime Minister and UMNO – as IPCMC is a bigger issue
than partisan politics or political gain

(Parliament,
Thursday) :
If certain PAS leaders were “irked” by my query last week (27th
May) about the “wobbly” PAS stand on the Independent Police Complaints and
Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) following the police revolt against the IPCMC
and the threat to support the Opposition against the Barisan Nasional in the
next general election, I was most irritated by the game played by PAS
leaders in refusing to express clear and categorical support for the IPCMC.

For
instance, four days after my query, the No. 2 man in PAS could not give a
clear and categorical answer on IPCMC and had to resort to evasive tactics
as illustrated by the Malaysiakini report “Show them who’s boss, Pak
Lah told” (30th May 30):

Contacted today,
PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa declined to comment except to
promise a response later after referring to party officials.

“We are currently very busy entertaining the (Hamas) foreign minister,
who has boycotted all official functions after being treated badly at
Non-Aligned Movement talks (in Kuala Lumpur) yesterday.”

I had earlier posted the
question – which Opposition would the police throw their votes in support
if IPCMC is set up, if all Opposition parties are
clear and categorical in their support for the IPCMC?

I continued:

“Is this the reason why
recently, PAS stand on IPCMC
seemed to have become quite wobbly, in hope of benefiting from a police
swing against the Prime Minister, Barisan Nasional and
UMNO over the issue?

“Let all Opposition parties,
in particular, PAS take a clear and unequivocal
stand on the IPCMC issue – not to allow the police
to flex it political muscles to hold the police beyond accountability,
transparency, integrity and good governance principles.”

He said it is not necessary for PAS to
re-state its clear support of all recommendations made by the Royal Police
Commission and asked why I had raised the question about PAS’ stand on
IPCMC when it had “always supported” the Royal Police Commission, its
findings and all its recommendations en bloc.

Frankly speaking, I asked the question because I do not know what is PAS
stand on IPCMC. In fact, the PAS Deputy President was also unclear as
illustrated in the Malaysiakini report.

In the last
parliamentary meeting, PAS MPs were conspicuously silent and absent in the
push in Parliament for the government to establish the IPCMC.

May be this is why
it is quite impossible for anyone doing a search on the Harakah and PAS
websites to discover any clear and categorical statement by the PAS
leadership supporting the IPCMC, although it was the centre of a prolonged
national controversy in the past 12 months.

PAS should
stop flirting with the reactionary police forces on the IPCMC issue hoping
to gain political mileage at the expense of the Prime Minister and UMNO –
as IPCMC is a bigger issue than partisan politics or political gain.

The
deplorable police misconduct on Sunday, using brutal force to break up a
peaceful protest against electricity tariff and fuel price increases as well
as the disgraceful May 4 incident in Penang where the police aided and
abetted the disruption of a peaceful and lawful forum on constitutional
rights, should be a clear message that there can be no compromise with any
police abuse of power and trampling on civil and human rights.

All
Malaysians committed to the goal of a clean, incorruptible, professional and
human-rights sensitive world-class police service must unite to isolate and
flush out the reactionary forces whether in the Malaysian police or the
political arena to remove the obstacles standing in the way of the
establishment of the IPCMC.

The Prime
Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had openly committed himself to
support the establishment of IPCMC and it is one issue political leaders,
regardless of party, whether ruling or opposition, should stand as one to
give him strength to implement the key recommendation of the Royal Police
Commission – and not to give any reactionary police or political forces any
opportunity to sabotage its establishment.